The only colour film Bela Lugosi starred in. He also had an uncredited minor role in another colour film, of which only black and white copies survive.

The film starts with a woman lying on a mortuary slab awaiting her autopsy, and she then narrates how she got there.

You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page.


This movie is part of the collection: Sci-Fi / Horror

Director: Christy Cabanne
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Language: English
Keywords: Bela Lugosi; Horror; Mystery; 1940s
Contact Information: archive@boffy.tk

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: barticle - - October 13, 2011
Subject: Right up there.
Right up there with one of the worst movies I've ever watched. I wonder why there's a dwarf in this film? He seems to play no part whatever in the story. Don't even try to make sense of the plot. They sure don't make movies like this anymore. Do they??

Also, the print is just fuzzy enough to cause eyestrain.

Reviewer: jeffzkrazie - - October 6, 2011
Subject: Lugosi and Color?
Five stars :D

Reviewer: Matthow - - July 29, 2011
Subject: entertaining trash
I watched this one insomnia-ridden night to have something dull to sleep to. Instead of being a dull and talky filler that lulled me to sleep, it commanded my full attention and entertained me every minute. I was very tired the next morning. It's a campy, nonsensical mess, but one I would recommend to anyone who likes old b-movies.

Reviewer: Campfire - - September 21, 2008
Subject: Other color films?
The description says that Lugosi was in one other color film, and one of the reviewers mentions TWO other color films. Can someone identify it/them please? Thanks.

Reviewer: yessi84 - - August 12, 2007
Subject: Good movie
Well in my opinion i think this is a good movie for being in a 40's movie. I say the way the story is told is a unique way and i really liked it. I think that is what got me to keep on seeing it what would happend next.

Reviewer: manavkaushik - - April 20, 2007
Subject: Fascinating early-color shocker
Scared to Death is a 1947 horror movie starring Bela Lugosi, shot in Cinecolor, and is one of only three colour pictures he was in and is the only color picture he starred in. The film is notable for its narration by a dead woman - she describes the events leading up to her death.

Not bad. Its worth a WATCH.

http://www.myspace.com/62663692

Reviewer: specs - - December 12, 2005
Subject: Poor Mr. Lugosi
Although the film print was fairly good, the download took a verry long to complete itself.
Generally speaking, not a bad film. It didn't
come up to my expectations. Mr. Lugosi'
performance was on par to many of the things
he was forced to do to make ends meet;wooden
and stiff. George Zucco's character was done moderatly well. The Nat Pendenton role was also
up to his comic/oaf performances. Generally,
nice way to waste an hour.

Reviewer: terracesider - - November 29, 2005
Subject: Zucco to the rescue
This film is resuced from mediocrity by Zucco, who lours his way through with some panache, and Lugosi. Both play excellently off the journalist (I forget the actor's name).

Not the worst film I've seen, by a long way, althtough the comic-turn policeman is a candidate for worst performance oscar. It passed an enjoyable enough hour.

Reviewer: billbarstad - - November 28, 2005
Subject: Scared to laugh
This is an light-hearted 'old house' style murder mystery. While I was able to finish watching the whole film, the jarring flash-forwards to the woman in the morgue, the bizarre scene sequence and thin, drawn-out story were hard to take. Poor Bela. It's in the same vein as Spooks Run Wild.

Reviewer: boffy_b - - November 28, 2005
Subject: Encoding
The mpeg2 is PAL with AC3 audio, as that's what it was on the DVD I sourced it from, and I didn't want to lossy re-encode un-necessarily.
mpeg1 is PAL with mpeg audio. I may also make an NTSC mpeg1.

The film itself is a mediocre print of a movie which is nothing special, but it's not dreadful either, and is significant in being Bela Lugosi's only surviving colour role.

Reviewer: PCinoPunk - - November 27, 2005
Subject: Strange
I checked the file out (mpeg2) and came up with a PAL encoding. Don't know the compression which is screwing up the runtime.

Reviewer: wilbrifar - - November 27, 2005
Subject: addendum to my previous post
I was wrong; turns out the entire movie is there, but like most of the files posted on this site it is encoded incorrectly, causing all of my software to read it as a 32 minute file. (This is the mpeg2, by the way.)